The project is a constituent of the NIH Graduate Partnership Program and serves to coordinate the doctoral research training and the university-NIH interface. The project provides trainees with molecular and comparative pathology educational content suitable for graduate credit at partnership universities. The Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Molecular Pathology Unit (MPU) staff has responsibility for training and mentoring trainees. Trainees undertake pre-dissertation research within the MPU for which they receive university graduate course credit applicable for earning the Ph.D. degree as comparative biomedical scientists. The veterinary pathologists undertaking research training integrate pathology into the range of intramural research. Program graduates finished PhD degree programs in pandemic influenza A virus infection, atherosclerosis, myeloma genetics, prostate cancer metastasis, brain microenvironment in breast cancer metastasis, and emergent human Nipah virus and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus pathogenesis, T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and traumatic brain injury. Current research topics include modeling oncogenic collaborating genes in leukemia, Ewing's sarcoma molecularly targeted therapy, p53 isoforms in glioblastoma, therapeutic radiation brain injury, progression of melanocytic precursor lesions of melanoma, inflammatory bowel disease, and drug treatment of multiple myeloma. The educational infrastructure within the training consortium includes university collaboration with the Molecular Pathology Unit and builds upon an interdisciplinary and comparative orientation to problems in biomedical science. Program and trainee accomplishments for fiscal year 2018 include: Presently there are 9 comparative biomedical scientists-in-training, supported by all NIH collaborating institutes. There are 2 program graduates who obtained PhD degrees during the reporting period. For the period of 2017 to present, current trainees have authored or co-authored 9 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles including 3 research manuscripts, 2 review articles, 3 clinical articles and a perspective article published in the following journals: Leukemia, Oncotarget, Journal of Veterinary Diagnotic Investigation, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Veterinary Pathology, Trends in Molecular Medicine, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Laboratory Investigation. One trainee achieved specialty board certification in anatomic pathology; one trainee received an NINDS Graduate Student Poster Award; one trainee was awarded a travel award by the Internation Pigment Cell Conference; Two trainees received Dennis Sikes scholarship awards in experimental pathology. Four veterinary students participated in the 2018 NIH Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Research (SIPBR) and trained in the labs of NCI, and NIAID. The program organized and hosted the 2017 National Veterinary Scholars Symposium in collaboration with the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, at the Natcher Center, NIH, Bethesda, August 3 - 5, 2018. The program co-organized and hosted the first ever national DVM, PhD combined degree student symposium, August 3, 2018.